Background:

At home I have a Macbook Pro (running Snow Leopard), an old Macbook Pro that my wife uses (running Leopard) and a Windows desktop that we use as a gaming box and media center (running XP). There are files which all three computers have in common, but there's no way to make them all the same without a complex syncing mechanism. These files are very important to us, so we also require a way of backing everything up following to the all too ignored rule - if it doesn't exist in three places, it doesn't exist. All of this really comes down to two problems:

Problem 1: Syncing Files

Dropbox can sync files between any number of computers. So can a number of other online services. Easy, problem solved, right? Not quite. These services often cost a pretty penny when you want to sync up more than a few gigs at a time. Some even have strict limits on the amount of data that can be stored at any given point (Dropbox is 100gb). It's also rather scary to think that I have no ownership over my data and it can be taken away from me. Many services work for Mac, but not PC (or vice-a-versa).

Problem 2: Backing Up Files

Many of the concerns I had with syncing I also had with backing stuff up. When I tried my first online backup service (Mozy) I disovered the biggest problem of online backup services. It... takes.... FOREVER. On a decent wifi connection it took me over a week to back up my 'important' files. Since moving to San Francisco we tried CrashPlan (by far my favorite online backup service - hands down) with all of my computers and even while plugged in at home, it took forever and a day to finish.

Keep'n it in the family

My desktop PC at home has a whole TB drive that I can use for syncing, backing up, whatever. Doing it myself means that I can expand storage whenever I'm ready to grow and because it's my own box - I own it. Additionally, speeds are blazingly fast if I plug in. The big quesiton is how.

It was around this time that I started playing with some syncing tools. There are many free tools out there, but none of them really solved the problem of keeping things synced up very well. I considered ChronoSync for a long time. They have excellent support staff and their software seems to be pretty solid, but something still seemed off to me.

Solution: GoodSync + Hamachi

That's when I found GoodSync. I installed it on my mac and my PC. My mac saw that my PC was running GoodSync and without being too wordy, it just worked. It was like magic. Wtihin minutes I was syncing files back and forth between my computers to test the versioning and quality of the sync. It was flawless. I selected my Music, Movies, Pictures and Projects (about 150gb total), plugged in to the LAN and synced everything in no time.

My only problem arose when I tried to sync while I was at work. My wife took some photos and synced them to the desktop at home. I thought "tehe, I 'll just sync and take a look!" I was met with an error telling me that it couldn't find the server. That's when it clicked that I had to use Hamachi by LogMeIn, but was discouraged to find out that it was a paid service. After much digging I was able to find the free version of Hamachi and got it running. I connected the computers and voila - I had the pictures locally.

I can't stress enough the importance of having important files in three places. For us it actually lives in four - my mac, my wifes mac, our desktop and my external hard drive at work. In order for the rule to be successful, at least one of the three places has to be away from the other two. Otherwise, your data would be lost by the building burning down or someone breaking in and stealing everything. This way, any one of our computers could die, we could be robbed or anything short of the entire city of San Francisco being destroyed, and our data is safe.

Price

GoodSync is $29.95 for one computer or $39.90 for two. Not bad, right? Since I never sync or backup FROM my PC, I haven't needed to by the software for that. I'm plenty happy to spend $39.90 one time to solve this problem in such a foolproof and elegant way. That's way better than any online backup or syncing service, plus I get as much storage as I want and I own it. What's not to love?